[Brian Taylor]

As an ex-member I can attest to the fact that the WMSCOG purposefully conflated individualism with narcissism. Over the course of my five years as a member, they tried to impress upon me that individualistic thinking was the reason for much of the world's problems and that it ultimately came from satan. It was also imressed upon members that to admire anyone besides Ahn and Zahng is wrong; and that to have a different opinion then the overseers in zion is wrong, and that to disagree with a brother or sister was wrong, to wear a different style of clothing then everyone in zion was wrong( professional wear), to listen to any music besides new songs is wrong, and……I think you know where I am going with this.

So what I would like to hear about, is where you stand now with whom you admire. Who are your heroes?What do you enjoy doing with your free time?( besides blogging ofcourse). I remember when I first left, one of the biggest things that provided, for me, the alleiveation of misery from coming to grips with the fact that the WMS is bogus was being able to read books that are not written by Ahn or poo-poo Kim.

[UntouchableJ]

[UntouchableJ]

Reading again, becsme my love again, once we left. I am big into history, so when I didnt have to surpress my love, it was great.

My heros became my family again. After coming out, seeing my Wife get back into her hobbies and having TIME to do them was wonderful. My son wants to play flag football. My daughter has time for after school sciene programs.

[Ms Freedom]

And THAT my dear Brian and UntouchableJ is FREEDOM!

[UntouchableJ]

Ms.Freedom -It is. Brian and I havr talked about WMS attempts to squash believers hobbies. If there is a major sporting event in a City, or on Television…Zion has “lots of work that needs to be done”. Playoffs on a Sunday, “Brother, we have a special project for you at Zion”. In my case, living on thr East Coast, they would get members together to go to New Windsor, N.J.

[Brian Taylor]

Yeah, reading is great. When I first came out my favorite books were athiest ones. Some might regard it as "throwing the baby out with the bath water" but to conclude that it's all fiction made the most sense. Studying history also helped me identify the holes in Daniel 2 and 7. Evolution was a subject I became obsessed with. At this point in time denying evolution is like denying gravity ( the WMS does deny evolution).

[UntouchableJ]

I remember once early in, we had a bowling party. I was new and attended, but I had headphones on. A member kept hounding me, “Godbless you brother, what are you listening to, hiphop?” I tried to ignore him, but it was annoying. Later it helped me realize, so many members hide behind masks they dont agree with. I would talk to many members in secret about Fashion, Technology,Music, Marriage advice etc. But it was always in hush…as if we were the French Resistance during WWII or something.

[Ms Freedom]

Of course they do because that would mean the Bible is false. I do understand this, though. All/most main stream Christian churches do not believe that evolution played a role in the beginning of the world. They believe that creation started everything and things evolved – their way of incorporating evolution so they remain somewhat credible. 

I too started reading atheist books (I know the word atheist makes most people cringe – thank you Madelyn Murray-O'Hare for making all people who believe in science and NOT the Bible look like horrible, obnoxious people!) 

I really started this because I wanted to prove the WMS wrong and see where there were loopholes and inconsistencies in their doctrine. Acomplished that but it encompassed much more than just WMS. It was a real eye-opener as to what I had believed my whole life.

(Thank you Brian for the recommendations for reading 😉 

[UntouchableJ]

There are many many errors in the bible, and after leaving WMS, it was a topic I had to look into. It further leads me to believr, that WMS and Zhang simply wanted to plug any biblical inconsistencies with their own doctrine and give the world a false God in the flesh as an answer to a sad world.

[Brian Taylor]

Ms Freedom wrote:

Of course they do because that would mean the Bible is false. I do understand this, though. All/most main stream Christian churches do not believe that evolution played a role in the beginning of the world. They believe that creation started everything and things evolved – their way of incorporating evolution so they remain somewhat credible. 

I too started reading atheist books (I know the word atheist makes most people cringe – thank you Madelyn Murray-O'Hare for making all people who believe in science and NOT the Bible look like horrible, obnoxious people!) 

I really started this because I wanted to prove the WMS wrong and see where there were loopholes and inconsistencies in their doctrine. Acomplished that but it encompassed much more than just WMS. It was a real eye-opener as to what I had believed my whole life.

(Thank you Brian for the recommendations for reading 😉 

LOL, Christopher Hitchens was a beast, and is one of my heroes. You could go on you tube and watch his public debates and observe how he nearly eats his opponents alive ( no matter what religion they were from). But yeah, evolution does not disprove the existence of god in a transcendental sense. What it disproves is the creation story in genisis. The only option from there is to make it figurative, but then if something is figurative or non-literal it is subject to the personal interpretation of the reader. At this point you can't claim it to be the undeniable, universal word of God. so……